Valentine Obienyem
Abakaliki Street is one of the most popular streets in Awka. This was long before it degenerated into a byword for prostitution. Once “Abakaliki Street” or an “Abakaliki girl” is mentioned, the reference is often understood to be to “ashawo.”
The street reminds us of Corinth of old, where, according to tradition, prostitution was so prevalent that, because Corinth was a confluence town, any man who slept in his house at night was considered a saint. That was why St. Paul’s letter to Corinthians were full of admonitions against sexual sins.
Some years ago, Governor Willie Obiano changed the name of the street to Club Road, a name his successor has since reversed. We had surmised at the time that the change might have been influenced by the fact that the street had become home to many clubs and that Obiano himself was a regular customer of some of them.
A few minutes ago, I passed through the street and noticed that, unlike in the past, when street prostitutes began emerging at about 10 p.m. and dispersed before dawn, things have changed considerably. In those days, even children living on such prostitution-infested streets might hardly have known what was happening around them. But these days, due to degeneration of morals, prostitution seems to have become regarded by some as little, forgivable peccadillo. Prostitutes now emerge as early as 7 p.m., brandishing their deadly ogles at passers-by.
As I passed through the street, the thought of Engineer Dave Umahi’s recent contrived lamentation over the renaming of the street as Club Road came to mind. He even said that one of the things that annoyed him about Mr Peter Obi was that Obi kept quiet about it.
But what if Governor Willie Obiano, contrary to Umahi’s shallow formulation or our own earlier surmises, changed the name out of genuine civic decency and respect for the proud people of Abakaliki? I ask this because having the noble name of an entire populace become permanently synonymous with commercialized vice hardly sounds pleasing to the ears of any right-thinking person.
Has it ever occurred to Umahi’s convoluted reasoning that the change of name might actually have been intended as a protective compliment to the good people of Ebonyi, our beloved and respected brothers – a shield to rescue them from the indignity of having their identity tied to the oldest profession in the world?
It takes a deliberate blanking of conscience to champion the perpetuation of a derogatory label just to manufacture a grievance.
In his breathless eagerness to launch yet another unprovoked missile at Peter Obi, Umahi simply took leave of his reason, trading common sense for cheap political opportunism. To have promoted a petty partisan attack over the collective dignity of a people reveals a profound bankruptcy of thought, proving that when political malice blinds a man, he will fiercely defend even the most sordid stigmas so long as he can weaponize them against his perceived adversaries.